Tennessean Washington Bureau

During a sharp back-and-forth couched in the language of Senate decorum, the Chattanooga Republican accused Cruz of Texas and fellow tea party darling Sen. Mike Lee of Utah of holding up Senate consideration of a stopgap government spending bill because they wanted the spotlight.

Corker accused both men of sending out press releases and emails to “outside groups,” urging them to watch today’sSenate proceedings, when they presumably will continue lambasting the 2010 health care reform law before a national audience.

“Is it more important to the senator from Texas and the senator from Utah that the people around the country watch this vote? Or is it more important to us that we have a good policy outcome?” Corker asked Cruz and Lee on the Senate floor.

At issue is consideration of a spending bill the Republican-led House passed last week that would keep the government operating past the end of the current fiscal year at midnight Monday. The federal government will shut down after that unless the bill is passed by Congress and signed into law.

The House bill includes language that would defund the health care law — a provision Cruz, Lee and several other GOP senators back but which has no chance of passing a Senate controlled by Democrats.

Senators are expected to strip out the defunding language and send a bill back to the House that would keep the government open through Nov. 15 while lawmakers work out a long-term budget compromise for the remainder of fiscal 2014.

Corker is no fan of the health care law and would like to see it replaced. But he said stalling the bill on the brink of a government shutdown would give the House less time to work on a counter-proposal for the Senate to consider.

Cruz, who spent 21 straight hours on the floor earlier this week speaking against the health care law, basically told Corker that was a cop-out. Allowing an end to debate on the spending bill would allow a later vote to strip out the provision to defund the health care law and would be tantamount to surrender, he said.

“When we told our constituents we oppose Obamacare, we meant it,” Cruz told Corker. “So we are not going to be complicit in giving (Majority Leader) Harry Reid the ability to fund Obamacare.”

At one point Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chastised the “Republican side” for delaying a Thursday vote on the spending bill, which Cruz and Lee were successfully able to push to today.

Corker responded that his party as a whole wasn't behind the latest stalling tactic.

“I know all Republicans other than two would actually like to give the House the opportunity to respond in an appropriate way,” he said.